Is Abu Dhabi the New Dubai?

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are two emirates of the UAE located very close to each other. Even their history is approximately the same. While Dubai developed from a fishing village, Abu Dhabi was known for its deer. However the name Abu Dhabi translates as ‘father of the gazelle’ in modern terminology.

Unlike Dubai, Abu Dhabi is still an oil producing emirate and has been rated the richest emirate of the UAE. Oil was first discovered in 1958 but it was only after the British left in 1971 that effort towards transforming the city from a nomadic lifestyle to a modern paradise of skyscrapers was seriously undertaken by the late Sultan Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who died in 2004. He has been succeeded by his eldest son Shaikh Khalifa who is now ruler of the emirate.
In terms of its cosmopolitanism, Abu Dhabi ranks just behind Dubai as a magnet for expatriates. The transformation of Abu Dhabi has taken place due to the efforts of overseas workers mainly from Iran, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, UK and a host of other nations. Like Dubai, Abu Dhabi too has been seeking to diversify its economic base beyond oil revenues and has succeeded beyond expectation, as up to 64 percent of its Gross Domestic Product is based on the retail, real estate, tourism and industry sectors. Being home to the UAE Government offices and the UAE National Bank headquarters makes Abu Dhabi an important financial and regional hub. This obviously translates into a lot of job opportunities for migrating workers in a variety of fields and industries.

In the aftermath of the US led worldwide recessionary trends, the Dubai World financial crisis and the resulting credit crunch, there has been a mass exodus of expatriate workers from Dubai. Any returning or new workers are now more in favor of looking at job sites Abu Dhabi as a more stable place to seek employment compared to Dubai. The luster of Dubai has paled a lot in the last two years and many expatriates will have negative memories of their last experience. If they cannot still make ends meet in their home countries or are looking at fresh employment opportunities in the UAE, they are more inclined to choose jobs opportunities Abu Dhabi in the local UAE newspapers. The pace of development in Abu Dhabi is picking up fast and with residential facilities about the same but employment opportunities even better, people are more attracted to job websites Abu Dhabi and job vacancies Abu Dhabi. It has been seen that jobs Abu Dhabi websites are getting a lot more hits than comparable websites in Dubai. Maybe Abu Dhabi is really becoming the new Dubai after all.